- Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
- Audio Codec: Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 (48kHz/24-bit), English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit)
- Subtitles: English
- Region: AB (No Region C)
- Rating: TV-14
- Run Time: 325 Mins. (Part One); 300 Mins. (Part Two)
- Discs: 8 (4 x Blu-ray + 4 x DVD) per set
- Studio: FUNimation Entertainment
- Blu-ray Release Date: April 17, 2012
- List Price: $69.98 (Part One) $64.98 (Part Two)
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Purchase Legend of the Legendary Heroes: Part 1 on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Purchase Legend of the Legendary Heroes: Part 2 on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:4/5]
The Series
[Rating:4/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:3.5/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
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The Series
[Rating:4/5]
A fantasy anime series based on the series of light novels by Takaya Kagami, with illustrations by Saori Toyota, The Legend of the Legendary Heroes, over the course of its 24-episodes, is filled with magic, action, and political intrigue. Set in a sort of Renaissance-era fictional Earth on a vast continent where the countries are constantly at war with one another, the story follows main protagonist, Ryner Lute. A powerful magician cursed with what is known as the “Alpha Stigma,” Ryner, along with others who bear this powerful mark in their eyes, which sometimes causes them to lose control of their powers and devour any and everything around, are treated like monsters, pariahs.
Growing up in the country of Roland and educated at the Roland Empire Royal Magician’s Academy, a choice between either that or death, the lazy and listless Ryner one day meets Sion Astal, who as fate would have it, becomes king of Roland. To backtrack a bit, in this society, the noble families trade in lowborn orphan children who they raise as their own and train to be powerful magicians and military officers to fight on the frontline, thereby sparing the children truly born of their own blood. Sion is one of these orphan children who rose to prominence. Now, he has enlisted the Alpha Stigma Ryner, keeping his condition a secret, to roam the lands seeking out powerful relics in an effort to solidify his power and create a better world.
Ryner sets out with a new partner, the beautiful blonde swordswoman Ferris Eris, from the Eris family, sworn to protect the Roland royal line, and together they encounter numerous threats, and come across a number of enemies wielding the power of these deadly relics to fight against Roland. But as their journey progresses, they discover the growing concern about the powerful Gastark empire creeping across the continent towards an inevitable conflict with Roland and a dark force rising up within Roland itself that could have Sion in its grasp.
Legendary Heroes relies on many classic anime characteristics to tell its story, not the lest of which are the tsundere traits of Ferris Eris, whose character design is almost like a Nordic warrior princess. There is some very mild chibi and loli designs in Ferris’ sister Iris. Mostly, however, the series relies on its ever growing web of ro yal intrigue between the various nations. It doens;t always succedd in tyin g everything up, but it is quite addictive.
Video Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
The Legend of the Legendary Heroes looks rather beautiful, even accounting for the creative choice to use a sort of diffuse veil over the imagery throughout the series, the fully digital, high definition source looks great. There are no signs of aliasing or macroblocking, colors often look resplendent and there is little to no noise on the fills.
Audio Quality
[Rating:5/5]
The original Japanese language track and English dub are offered in lossless Dolby TrueHD, with the former in 2.0 stereo and the latter in 5.1 surround. They are both solid efforts indeed. The Japanese track has aggressive stereo panning, clean dialogue and, for those with speakers capable enough, strong low frequencies. With that being said, the original language track definitely shows a distinct limit in its dynamics and, what I’ll call here “airiness” compared to the English dub in 5.1. The English track is, needless to say, much more expansive with a better sense of dynamic range. There is also very good use of the surround channels for ambience as well as more discrete and atmospheric sound effects. The LFE channel also helps solidify the bottom range, but without any boominess.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:3.5/5]
For anime fans and fans of this series in particular, the real jewel is the four audio commentaries for specific episodes included in the supplements package. Everything else is what we’ve come to expect, including clean opening and closing animations and additional FUNimation trailers.
The supplements:
- Episode 03 Commentary
- Episode 09 Commentary
- Episode 21 Commentary
- Episode 24 Commentary
- Textless Opening Song “LAMENT~Yagate Yorokobi Wo~”
- Textless Closing Song “Truth of My Destiny”
- Textless Opening Song “Last Inferno”
- Textless Closing Song “Filament of Light”
- U.S. Trailer
- FUNimation Trailers
- DVD
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:4/5]
The Legend of the Legendary Heroes offers up a good balance of action, fantasy, and intrigue, drawing viewers in with an addictive web of plot development and character designs. Funimation releases parts one and two separately on April 17, 2012 in Blu-ray Combo Packs and I don’t hesitate to recommend picking them both up if you’re an anime fan.
Additional Screen Captures
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[amazon-product]B0071LEN3Q[/amazon-product]
[amazon-product]B0071LEQ1A[/amazon-product]
Purchase Legend of the Legendary Heroes: Part 1 on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Purchase Legend of the Legendary Heroes: Part 2 on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:4/5]
The Series
[Rating:4/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:3.5/5]
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